"After 20 Years' Silence."

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 11, 19 May 1911, Page 13

"After 20 Years' Silence."

SAiTH THE SPEAKER.

Mr. Tregear on Arbitration and the Labor Movement

TNOTE. This is the full text of Mr. Edward Tregear's notable speech delivered at the Trades and Labour Councils' Conference, Christchurch, last month. It is a great speech. We imagine that our Australian and foreign exchanges in particular will be deeply interested in and instructed by the views of one who as Secretary of the Labour Department of New Zealand earned world-wide repute. The presentation referred to marked Mr. Tregear's retirement from his post, and consisted of a beautifully illuminated address from the organised workers of the Dominion, framed in totara wood and silver filagree work of Maori design; also a purse of sovereigns for Mrs. Tregear. Mr. M. J. Reardon, President of the Conference, made the presentation in an eloquent speech.]

Mil. TREGEAR'S REPLY. "Let mc, first of all, before speaking of myself, thank you from the depths of my heart for the kind way in which you have thought of and alluded to my dear wife. She has done her work far away from the public gaze, but she has done it faithfully and well. Wβ were poor when we started in married lite together, and we are going back to comparative poverty now, but she has through all hard times given the only service in life worth having, the service of self-forgetful, self-denying love. We have, as true mates, shared every sixpence together, and so the money you have given her has been also given to mc. In our name, we thank you, very gratefully. "Men are often reported as saying in response to the toast of their healths, 'This is the proudest moment of my life.' This may be or may not be true, according to the man and the occasion, but when I have to acknowledge kind speeches-, far kinder than I can ever really deserve, when I have to say 'thank you' for such speeches and tor presents given that can only come once fn a lifetime, as the culmination and crown of a life's work, then you can understand that, mixed with real humility for self, a feeling of boundless pride in my dear comrades and my work fills my heart. I shall be proud of THIS MAGNIFICENT PRESENTATION till the last hour of my life, and perhaps —beyond. Who knows? "Your gift has beem partially made to mc in money. As you all know, n.oney is a good thing or a bad thing just as it is used. The same coins may buy food for a starving orphan child, or may be used as the reward of a cruel murder; they may buy a present for an innocent girl on her wedding day, or may help another innocent woman down to perdition. The money you offer mc now is SANCTIFIED TO ME by coming from the hands of working men and women. What does that mean? It means that every sixpence has been worked for, sweated for; that someone who had little to spare has denied himself or herself some indulgence or perhaps even some necessity in order that a token of affection should reach mc from them. It has touched mc indeed! A sum as large, a sum ten times as large, might come to mc from some wealthy person, and, if accepted at all, it might be spent as wantonly as it was gained easily, but this, the offering of the workers to one who has, in his little way, worked for them, is the offering of lover to lover, sacred beyond all sacred things. It is so sacred that I should not dare to accept it if I did not hope to make it of some use to the generous, tender-hearted people who have given it to mc. I hope that every pound offered in this testimonial may be. like seed-corn, TO MULTIPLY BREAD for those who have sown the preious grains. It was not given to mo, I know, with any such idea; it is a free gift, to spend how I choose; but I want to use it in getting fuller knowledge and higher, tisefulness for the ■workers of New Zealand. Not for the workers of New Zealand alone, for I am proud to say that in matt-era of progress, especially of legislative progress, what New Zealan-d does to-day the world will do to-morrow. "Before I speak of the Labour Moremeat generally, and of Trades Unionism in particular, I shotild like to unburden my soul in regard to the CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION ACT. Many attacks are being made upon it by the workers, and very bitter feelings on the subject are sometimes expressed. I -should be glad, after being silent for twenty years, that is—kind of silent; silent ac I could be —I should like to epeak freely and show my real position

as to the Act. What I wish to say to the workers is—'Until— NOTE THAT UNTIL— the moment arrives when you are actually and practically determined to end the system of competitive wageearning, you will never find a principle more just and sane than that of arbitration. I thought so twenty years ago; I think so still. Some people say: "The Act served its turn; it belongs to the past; throw it on the scrap-heap." I answer:—"lt has never served its perfect turn; it is a thing, not of the past, trat of the future, for it is a part of that glorious legislation which will 'one day help to beautify the world and make it into a garden of the gods." What have you to propose instead of war ? Instead of military and naval war ? Of war, preparation for which is fast ruining the nations by mad expenditure in time of peace, and which will bring HELL UPON EARTH when it once begins ? Your only suggested remedy is Intel-national Arbitration, and as long as there are separate nations, which 1 trust will not be long, as they are fast coalescing; as long as there are separate nations International Arbitration must be the Higher Law. But it vexes mc to hear men speak of military war as the worst of evils, when every day and every night, and all day and all night, there is raging round the world an industrial war ten thousand times more deadly. There are more men "killed and wounded in one year on the privatelyowned railways of the United States than were killed and wounded (in both armies) during thre© years of the Boer War. Yet what a fuss was made over Spionkop and Mafeking, over Paardeburg and the Tugela River, while the WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER OF i RAILWAY MEN seems not worth consideration. In a single industry of a single nation, that is, in the mm 23 of Great Britain alone, a miner is killed every two hours; a miner is maimed or injured ©very forty seconds. Who seems to care? Yet the British Chief Inspector of Mines said in a late report that not one single accident takes place in mines that cannot be prevented if money is spent to prevent it. Ay! but the dividends! Let us come closer home. I have in my pocket a report printed—not in a rabid "Labour paper," but in the highly respectable ''Evening Post" of Wellington—concerning a' strike of the Patea Wharf Labourers in February of this year. In this report Mr. Jackson of the West Coast —a man known to all of you; known as one of the most steady and reliable men in this colony —stated that accidents at Greymoutli I wharf occurred to 67* PER CENT. of the labourers employed. He added that out of an average (for two years) of 160 men working on that wharf, 112 men were incapacitated, some of them permanently. Note here., too, that this industrial war is carried on in a way infinitely more unfair than that of military for in the latter you have a chance of giving the other fellow as much as he gives you in the way of suffering, but in industrial war THE DEATHS AND WOUNDS ARE ALL ON ONE SIDE,"" on the Avorkers' side. Did you ever hear of a trading company where out of every 100 shareholders 112 were killed or wounded when engaged in the dangerous work of drawing their dividends ? No ; but drawing dividends is their share in the 'Partnership between Capital and La.boix , —Oh, that partnership ! Is not this killing and maiming of men for profit as dreadful as the killing and maiming of men for the sake of the Flag? And if your only proposal to stop national war is arbitration, what better have you to propose to mollify the evils of industrial war? For industrial war can never in itself be ended till you haiM*

DESTROYED THE WAGE-SYSTEM UTTERLY. "Apart from the pure principle of arbitration, if the machinery and administration of the Arbitration Act has not been perfect, I entreat you to remember that it has been in the han<is of fallible human beings to carry out; of liuman beings with weaknesses like you, with prejudices like yoii; trained as you and I and all of us have been in the 'wolf law' of the competitive system. Is it any wonder that now and then there have been disappointments amd bitterness when the fondlydreamed desires have not been realised ? Remember that at first the Act won favour from the workers. There were many old wrongs, many injustices to be righted, and much was done to put the workers on a sounder and better footing; enoxigh, at all events, to bring enquiries and enquirers from every civilized nation. But the Act was set down within an environment foreign to its nature; it was„, expected to work in with the DANGEROUS AND PERISHING machinery of the competitive system. As I said in a famous Parliamentary Paper, it was 'in the position of a single regiment or division of an army sent far into the enemy's country without reserves or supports.' That want of support has caused the partial failure of the Act, the want of sisterActs to the Arbitratiosn Act, Acts controlling dishonesties of all kinds, Acts controlling monstrous rents, Acts controlling unearned increments and

the others could claim a share in the bargain. With the absence of our somuch vaunted competition good work was done; there was plenty to eat, drink and wear; men had not then to dye their hair and beards lest they should be thrown on the scrap-heap at forty-five years of age. Do not think I am urging a return to the guild system, or preaching of a Golden Age in the past; there were many evils and oppressions afflicting the workers (especially the unskilled workers) in thoso days, but the guilds protected the worker in the trades from the present fierce struggle for existence. "There was a strike in England nearly 370 years ago; a curious strike, and it was in this wise. Twenty-one journeymen shoemakers of Wisbech assembled on a hill outside the town and sent three delegates to their employers to demand a rise in wages, threatening that if any man came into the town for a twelvemonths and a day to work for lower wages than were then proposed they 'would have a leg or an arm of him' —that was a drastic way to treat 'blacklegs ' wasn't it ? to cut ONE OF THE BLACK LEGS OFF. Now the reason why that combination of shoemakers was not a trade union was that it had not continuity; when the strike was over the combination dissolved. Trade-unionism proper bogan amongst the tailors. So expensive became the mat-eriais for men's extra.vagant Court-dress that journeyman fovind they could no longer set up in business for themselves unless they could find large funds for the purchase of stock. So a new principle was introduced in business; that of an employer providing capital (sometimes borrowed at first) but who engaged wage-workers wJio could never m all their lives hope to be anything but wage-workers. At once we see the institution of two classes; one class consisting of employers to whose interest it is to get as much out of their workers as they can for the smallest payment; the other class, that of workers, to whose interest it is to give as little work as possible for as nmch money as they can obtain. Luckily, HUMAN NATURE IS BETTER THAN SYSTEMS; there were and are employers who do not try to exploit their employees, and workers who give loyal and faithful work in return for their pay, but the bare economic principle of wage-paying and wage-taking is •as I have said — and that principle means Warl So deeply has the idea become engrained in the working classes thai* i have found one of the strongest points of objection Lirged against the Arbitration Act to be that employers have prospered under it and now support it— therefore it must be of disadvantage to the workers, since what is good for one must be bad for the other. When the wages men banded themselves into trade unions for mutual protection they began a war-preparation, just as much as the parade of a regiment is a war-preparation. In spite of well-worn iteration and re-iteration of platitudes, such as, 'The interests of Labour and Capital are identical/ etc., etc., under the competitive system WAGE-PAYING IS WAR. Many employers are honest men; they give, as they say, 'A fair day's pay for a fair day's work, 53 but employers under the present conditions are armed with weapons and with powers which the working class must meet by combination or be ground to dust and powder under the wheels of an infernal system. For an infernal system it is which makes a man lord and king over his fellows simply by virtue of his having inherited or collected some of the counters which represent the world's wealth. "The real king is the man who can say:—'You may work and live,' or who can say, 'No work; you can die." What Eastern tyrant has greater power than that of life and death over his subjects? But the economic king in our country is the employer, the ruler who can stretch out his sceptre and say: —'Live!' or 'Die!' 'The man who owns the machine owns the man who works the machine. 5 "There are good reasons why working men and women should SUPPORT TRADE UNIONS apart from the questions of wages and hours. We may put aside as almost universally accepted the idea that all those benefited/ by union action should support unions, and that only the lazy or dishonest accept the improved conditions and then try to bite the hand that feeds them. The conduct and control of a union teach its members the methods of collective business; meetings of committees, duties as presidents, secretaries, trustees, correspondence, book-keeping, not only give to artisans and labourers useful business training, but gradually fit them for public life, that is, for a life of wider benefit to the community. Every direotion in which a' man does social work

transfers of land. Acts controlling undue profits. If you are not prepared to send representatives to Parliament who will support such legislation, do not rail at the true-hearted men who when they introduced the Arbitration Act thought they were doing something to aid the workers and advance the cause of humanity. Perhaps they were premature, they would be premature .even now if it is impossible to arouse the workers to their folly in doing as they have done so frequently hithertonamely, voting for men who are the open and avowed agents of those who exploit the workers and SUCK THEM DRY. I tell yovi that in regard to the Arbitration Court and all other Courts that in your hattids the ballot can be made a whip of knotted cords wherewith to scourge the money-changers from God's Temples of Justice. "Many times already, I find, I have used the term war , —and to justify this I will refer to the history of times preceding trade-unionism. How did trade-unions have their origin? In the old trade-guilds of the Middle Ages? Certainly siot, for the guild was absolutely different in principle, and its members had no part in industrial war. The guild was a combination of master and worker together, of men in the same class; allies, not enemies; mem who had nothing of the discontent, the inequality, or the hopelessness which induce industrial war. The guilds established a great principle, namely, the eighthour day both for town and ccrantry workers. The master bought materials himself; at these materials he worked in conjunction with and in instruction to his journeymen and apprentices. The apprentice looked forward to being a journeyman, the journeyman to being a master-worker when he too would, one day take the profit from his work. That was the secret of content; THE MAN WHO DID THE WORK TOOK THE PROFIT. How many do that now ? The guild 'prohibited night-work; the members were not allowed to underbid each other for a job, and if any member of a guild bought material at a low rate

IMPROVES HIS CHARACTER, and tho more sides he has to his character the better man he is all round. It" he takes an active interest in his union, his church, his club, his debating society, in his duties as a husband, av=i a father, as a citizen, lie develops a new man on every side in which lie touches the community at large. When such a trade-unionist asks for freedom, what kind of fredorn does he mean P He" asks for freedom to do good work; freedom to work without having to beg it from another man as a slave begs his owner for broad; irccdom to man;\.:rv ])!S OWII Vital business Without being di-charged or blacklisted; freedom to 'combine iv any v> ay that docs not trench on the rights of tlie community. j-J-o wants also tiie freedom to refuse to work for that sort of 'cant am of industry' who weights calico and cloth wicli lime and lead, who adulterates food supplies, or manufactures shoddy; who knows how to take away the smell of putrid meat before it is canned. In fact he wants to do real work., tha u ia work of benefit to the community; not burglar's -work or swindler's work. There are LIRGLARS AND SWINDLERS in every kind of .social position, and tho t'-*t of "their true quality is to iind out whether they are trying to give measure for measure, or wliether tney_ are trying to get 'ssnictlung lor nothing. "■'XUo Labour Movement is an attempt to restrain outrageous greed. It iss true that workers are .sometimes styled greedy by those who think that the producers of tlio world's wealth oupht to live like paupers and exist purely at the or tnosc v. no make" profit by them; but the accusation or greed comes ill from hypocrites whose lives and souls are rotten with greed. Such men prate about -the laws ol : f.iu>ply and demand' wlum.tlu-y them4?ei.vcr. have shut otr all sources supply except under heavy tribute. 'La>\s of.production and exchange' are quoted at .men who are not allowed a chance to produce anything for themselves or to po.ssc.ss anything" worth exchange. The Labour Movement is an _ attempt to i'orni a new civilization, since the old oivi ligation, rot tan. and decayed, is tumbling about our ears. The Labour Movement is A MISSIONARY FORCE in the world to prolong and extend tho work of religion ana politics. Religion has tauglio (feebly enough sometimes) that all men are equals and brothers in church and nt the communion table. Polit.es, democratic politics, have taught tiiat we arc all equal at the voting booth. Wo want to carry the brothernood idea outside the church and polling booth and TAKE IT ACROSS THE WAGES LINE. Nowadays we are all ready to acknowledge that because a man is poor is no reason why he shov.ld not be allowed to pray —or to vote-—but we now preach that because he is poor it is not fair to make him poorer still by cutting down his wages or making him work in bad air or in filthy surroundings. So we uphold a higher standard than most chinches, for we insist that men must be brothers not only on Sundays but on working days ; not only at tho voting place but in the mills and mines and workshops. "In conclusion, i say we want freedom for our unions in order that such freedom may produce more union. Your industrial unions must mass into federations, your federations into national brigades, your national brigades into international armies; armies of men loving mercy, but determined on equity, and on equity all the time. These armies of peace, not the armies of war, will control tho fate of the world in the coming years, although probably the greed and wickedness engendered by the present economic system will bring the infamy of military and naval war upon us directly, before the Armies of Peace are properly organised. That we shall have to bear, as the penalty of having been asleep too long, btit, beyond that war, THE FUTURE OF MAN IS WITH THE LABOUR MOVEMENT, because the supporters of that movement believe in the ultimate victory of Light over Darkness. Darkness! Such darkness ! "Out of tho gulfs of the historic past, out of that sea of blood and tears across which come to us the sighs aiid wai lings of those who for ages have cried for justice, and have cried in vain ; out of that awful ocean I see, slowly emerging, a splendid figure, that of the .sleeper awakened, of LABOUR. sane and alert at last! Labour's voice is beginning to echo and re-echo round tho world, demanding- a Brotherhood that is not, as at present, a social and economic lie; Labour's giant hands will ensure to the worker the fxill reward of his work, and LABOUR'S RESISTLESS FEET will trample the horrors of industrial war down to oblivion and to the hell from which, they came!"